Dorchester man charged as hitman for multi-state prostitution ring

Jaquan Casanova, 24, of Dorchester, was indicted on federal charges last week that he pulled the trigger on a leader of a prostitution ring suspected of talking to the feds.

Another alleged ringleader. Raymond Jeffreys, 27, also of Dorchester, was already facing charges, and was also charged last week with the attempted murder of Darian Thomson as Thomson sat in a car at Draper and Westville streets in Dorchester around 10:10 p.m. on April 30, 2013.

The indictment alleges Casanova shot Thomson at Jeffreys's command - and lied to federal and Boston Police investigators about the shooting in an interview in January of this year. Thomson was badly injured, but survived.

Federal officials allege Jeffreys was one of several men who preyed on vulnerable woman and girls at bus stops or on social networks between 2006 and 2014 and turned them into prostitutes, whom they essentially managed to keep imprisoned as they allegedly ferried them from state to state - from Maine to California and Florida. The men would sell the women - although most were under 18 at the time - at hotels at highway junctions.

A federal grand jury indicted four alleged ringleaders in March 2013, including Thomson, but not Jeffreys. The other three were arrested. Thomson wasn't, but only because he was already in custody in New Jersey on an unrelated charge. He was released in New Jersey in April and traveled back to Boston.

Jeffreys believed that Thomson had cooperated with law enforcement in New Jersey and directed the shooting of Thomson, to prevent Thomson from providing information regarding him and Norris to federal law enforcement. Jaquan Casanova a/k/a "Cass,' "Jeffy," or "Jeffy Joe," carried out the shooting at Jeffrey's direction. Jeffreys and Casanova intended to kill Thomson.

In court documents, federal officials detail the alleged methods of the male ringleaders, which included getting their prostitutes pregnant, to use the children as further leverage against the women. Jeffreys alone may have fathered more than a dozen children with his prostitutes, when he wasn't busy making music videos and partying in Las Vegas, the FBI alleges.

Jeffreys and his co-conspirators frequently used hotel rooms, often near highways, for the girls and women to engage in prostitution activity. Jeffreys often stayed in an adjacent room, in the bathroom, or on the other line of a phone left connected in the room, in order to monitor the activity in the hotel room. He made sure that the girls and women who worked for him were aware of his ability to monitor what they said and did when they were not with him. This was a technique he used as part of his scheme to control the girls and women. ...

Jeffreys worked with other men to share resources, such as car rides, hotel rooms, and the payment means for the online advertisements. Colloquially, such relationships are often referred to as "pimp partners" or "p partners." Jeffreys taught other men, including Darian Thomson, a/k/a "80," and Corey Norris, alk/a "Case," how to engage in sex trafficking. Thomson and Norris transitioned from assisting Jeffreys in his operation to harboring, transporting, obtaining, and maintaining girls and women to work directly for them. The men continued their affiliation. however, and continued to share resources. On occasion, girls and women would move from one of the men to the other.

According to an FBI affidavit, Jeffreys's criminal career started in 2000, when he was just 13. Before he turned 18, he had racked up a record that included assault and battery, armed robbery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.

The feds say prostitution has increased in the Boston area in recent years, in part due to crackdowns and violence related to drug and gun sales:

[B]oth street gang members and others who regularly engage in criminal activity in the Boston area have become very wary of other means of illegal income, such as drug or gun sales. These individuals are aware that drug or gun dealing is a dangerous enterprise, drug dealers are at risk of violence from buyers, sellers and rival dealers. Furthermore, especially with the mandatory minimum penalties applicable to drug and gun possession, drug dealers fear the legal consequences of their activities. In contrast, many individuals view pimping as unlikely to result in criminal prosecution and, in the event that it does, unlikely to result in any kind of significant penalty.

According to the indictment:

On January 12, 2015, a federal agent from United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement/Homeland Security Investigations and Detectives of the Boston Police Department, who were jointly investigating the shooting of Thomson, interviewed Casanova and asked him about his relationship with Jeffreys. Casanova told them that he had not seen Jeffreys since they were in the same location in 2011 or 2012, that he did not know him well, and that he did not even know where he lived in 2013. This was false, misleading, deceptive, ficticious, and fraudulent as to a material matter, as Casanova had an ongoing relationship with Jeffreys in 2013, had seen him multiple times, and had spent time at the apartment that Jeffreys lived in during that time.

Innocent, etc.